73. Find out if your hospital and/or clinic has a “Patient’s Bill of Rights”—and if so, make sure your treating healthcare professionals are following it.

74. Learn about the potential side effects of any and all medications you are considering or presently taking. Sometimes their adverse side effects can create more harm than the problem you’re taking the medication(s) for.

75. Run—don’t walk!—from any physician or other healthcare professional who doubts, dismisses and/or discounts your report of pain!

77. Educate yourself about all of your therapy/treatment options (including complimentary and alternative choices)—this will enable you to make the best, most informed decisions about your pain management care.

Clinical Advice

78. Using a rating scale such as 0 to10 (0 = no pain, 10 = worst pain) is a useful way to communicate your pain to others and assess changes in your own pain.

79. Use the rating scale to rate how much relief you are receiving. For example, if your pain therapy relieves your pain from a “10” to a “7”, this is a good step. But knowing your pain is a “7” should suggest that you still require additional help.

80. Prevention of pain is key. Anticipate things that bring your pain on (exhaustion, dehydration, stress, etc.) and make every attempt to prevent pain versus responding only when it happens.

81. When taking pain medication, always consider what non-drug treatment you could use along with it. Using heat/cold/massage/relaxation can diminish anxiety and distract you from the pain until the medication can begin working.

83. For chronic pain problems, it is generally better to take medications on a regular, around-the-clock schedule rather than only on a “prn”/as needed basis only when pain is severe.

84. Fortunately, there are many choices of analgesics(be it traditional, complementary or alternative)—so if a particular pain therapy that has been prescribed doesn’t work or causes side-effects, ask to try another.

85. In general for chronic pain, long-lasting medications are preferred to offer several hours of undisturbed sleep or activity.

86. If your doctor prescribes physical therapy, be sure to find a therapist you have a repore with. Explain your symptoms carefully, and go over your doctor’s report together. Also be sure to immediately alert your therapist to any pain you’re experiencing as a result of a therapy exercise.

87. “Breakthrough pain” is pain that occurs in episodes between doses of medications. Discuss this with your physician to determine if breakthrough medications are needed.

88. Inactivity or decreased function is a major problem in chronic pain and results in muscle weakness, dependence, depression—and this cycle only worsens over time. Try to maintain activity if at all possible.

89. Depressionand anxietyare generally an integral part of the pain experience—and can become severe. Don’t hesitate to tell your pain management provider about these feelings and indeed ask for a referral for a support group and/or psychologist. Your doctor should know psychologists who specialize in pain.

91. Here’s a wonderful resource to help the people who care about you. Surviving a Loved One’s Chronic Pain by David Kannerstein, PhD and Sarah M. Whitman, MD. Download a copy here: http://www.ppmjournal.com/Handout.pdf